


Price to Pay

by Kiri_Kaitou_Clover



Series: Of MoM and Time Travel [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts, xxxHoLic
Genre: Angst, Closed Timeloop, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Master of Masters is Sora, Mom!Sora, Post Bad Ending Kingdom Hearts III, Post-Canon, Sora goes to the Wish Shop, Watanuki is mysterious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 08:39:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17998559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiri_Kaitou_Clover/pseuds/Kiri_Kaitou_Clover
Summary: A certain someone comes across a certain book, about a certain wish shop. He intends to avert the fate of his friends, by giving his younger selves a chance.He didn't think it would hurt this much.(Or Watanuki is visited by a desperate Keyblade Wielder, and grants him his wish. But the price of changing fate is great. He knows this all too well himself.)





	Price to Pay

**Author's Note:**

> So, a number of years ago, I made the simple comment in one of my fic ANs of KH's storyline being Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles/xXxHolic levels complicated and confusing and complex. 
> 
> Fast forward to this year, and one of my current favourite theories INVOLVES SAID LEVELS OF COMPLEXITIES AND CRAZY TIME LOOPS. 
> 
> So here you go. The insane oneshot that took up a large part of my afternoon/evening to write.  
> (I hate explaining time loops.)

It had... taken him ages to find this place. This Wish Shop on the border of dimensions.

Darkness may have prevailed and Light expired, but that didn't mean that he'd died. The opposite had happened after that disasterous battle. He'd survived. He'd become the only survivor left. All because Kairi wanted him to live. Because Riku wanted him to live.

But how could he? A world without Kairi, a world without Riku. He rejected that. He rejected that fate. So he searched. Searched for a way to avert their fates. 

Time Travel had come up as an option. But one wrong move and he would loose that Kairi and Riku too. There was also the price of time travel. As much as Xehanort gloated about it, he knew the price of that power was always memories of the future that would happen.

So he continued searching the Darkness engulfed worlds. 

He stumbled across the Mysterious Tower still protected against the Dark, but Yen Sid didn't wish for him to chase after such pursuits, and focus on beating back the Darkness.

Foolish old man. He couldn't do that. Not anymore. His motivation had never been about fighting Light or Dark. It had always been about the safety of his friends. It would have done him well to remember that. 

So he searched. The Land of Departure was next, but he found nothing but a single route map for the Oceans Between.

He arrived in a city surrounded by Darkness tainted water. And skies tainted by the dark purple clouds. He could sense Xehanort here. But he ignored the old man's presence. It wasn't important why he was here in the first place, focusing on finding the library instead.

It was messy. Books laid on the floor, scattered about. Many detailing the Lost Masters. Many detailing the Age of Fairy Tales. Some about Keyblades. Some about Light and Darkness.

Scouring those books made him realise though. Bringing them back was impossible. They were gone. Dead. Beyond his reach. And with that in mind... he broke. He screamed, he raged, he cried. 

He didn't know what to do anymore...

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw it. A single book stood out from the mess, a book on alternate dimensions, of world travel beyond the oceans between, and specifically... of a wish shop that stood on the border of all dimensions. 

And the revelation that a wish shop existed? This gave him an idea.

The shop was accessible to those who had a wish. But where it would appear was a mystery. The only other possibility? Was to search through dreams. Which was what he did. 

Now. He stood here on the doorsteps of an ornate looking house. The sky around them dark and twinkling with stars, a sight he hadn't seen in the few years now.

"Well this is quite the surprise. It is odd that a customer finds the shop out through the Realm of Sleep," a youthful voice cuts through the night, and he whirls around.

There was a young man in front of him, dressed in a loose fitting kimono, and behind his glasses were eyes with heterochromia, filled with much wisdom and age that he didn't think the young man in front of him fit the age he looked.

He tilted his head, "Are you the owner of this shop? I'd read that it was owned by the Witch of Dimensions, which would imply a lady."

The young man laughed. A bitter, sad, laugh. "Unfortunately, Miss Yuuko has long passed. I'd been apprenticed to her at the time, and thus I'd inherited all her duties."

"Oh." Well. That was an insensitive question. 

The shopkeeper shook his head, "Nevermind that. Please. Come in. As Miss Yuuko did, I will do my best to complete whatever wish you have."

Following him down the hallway, he asked, "What made you think I was here for a wish?"

All knowing eyes looked back in amusement, "Everyone who seeks the Dimensional Witch and her Wish Shop always comes here with a wish, unknowingly or not. You are no different. There is no such thing as coincidences, only hitsuzen. The inevitable."

He sighed. Of course someone who looked this ageless and timeless would be cryptic. 

They took their seats on opposite ends of the table. He shuffled. Now that he was here, he was unsure of what to do next. Should he...

"So tell me, what is the wish in your heart that has brought you here, young Keyblade Wielder?"

His eyes shot up, shocked. Surprised.

"You aren't the first Keybearer to come to me for a wish you know. I met one just the other day even," the shopkeeper hummed, pouring them both a cup of tea.

"Then... I guess..." he hesitated. If he said his wish...

"You can still leave without your wish. You are free to do so anytime. There isn't any obligation for you to actually buy something from the shop you know," he continued, amused.

"..." He sighed, "Before I tell you my wish, may I know who it is I'm sharing this with?"

"Oh. Well now. How rude of me," he chuckled, "Watanuki Kimihiro. I apologise for not introducing my self earlier."

He smiled at the shopkeeper, "I guess I can start with my wish then."

When he'd searched for the shop, he'd thought to himself, over and over again. What was his wish? To bring his friends back to life? Not possible. Not without costing someone else's life. To go back in time and avert fate? He'd already contemplated that and knew of the price of knowing the future - his own memories. So what else could he do? 

The answer he arrived at... would hopefully ensure that what happened to him, wouldn't happen to anyone else.

"I wish for any of my other selves, in all of the other timelines, to gain the opportunity to save my two best friends. A chance I never got."

Watanuki blinked. And smiled.

"I see you've thought this through. But I'm quite sure you would like to hear the cost of this wish."

He nodded. He'd been prepared to pay a cost. The price of altering the timelines, even as minute as giving one of his selves an opportunity to save everyone, was a dire one. 

"Your price has multiple parts. First, is to return to the Age of Fairy Tales, and teach six children the ways of the Keyblade. You may not show your face, and you may not tell them your name. But teach them wisely."

The Age of Fairy Tales? Why then? It was an odd price but he would agree to it.

Watanuki then moved to take something from the store and when he returned... "The second, is this."

An eye. A very familiar eye. He'd seen it before. On Xehanort's Keyblade. On Riku's Keyblade. Why...

"This Gazing Eye, gives the ability to see the future, as long as it exists at some point in time. One day, you'll be burdened by the knowledge from your time. And you will write it all down," Watanuki murmured.

He gulped. Why was the price becoming more and more foreboding.

"And lastly, is that for the period of time between the time your first visions are to come to pass, till the very last one..."

"You will not exist."

He paled.

Watanuki continued, "You will exist in their memories of course, but you will cease to exist physically until the time of that second chance passes."

"What do you..." he asked, now bewildered. 

Watanuki simply smiled. Mysterious. And his eyes now hiding his emotions. 

He sighed, then looked at Watanuki with hardened blue eyes, "If this is the price for my other selves to get that chance to save my friends, I'd gladly pay it. A world where they don't exist isn't worth living in."

Watanuki nodded, "Then I accept your payment."

The eye vanished from its container and immediately, all he could feel was pain. He could hear screaming. But where...? Oh. It was his own screams.

Soon the pain subsided. He panted and looking at the mirror conveniently nearby, he flinched, seeing the glowing slit eye that was the Gazing Eye from underneath the hood.

Taking a moment to breathe, he turned to Watanuki and asked, "Now what?"

The shopkeeper smiled, "Now, I send you on your way."

As if summoned by his words alone, a portal appeared. Different from the ones in the Realm of Sleep, but similar enough to know its purpose of facilitating travel. 

He stood up and bowed to Watanuki, "Thank you... I will be forever grateful to you for this chance."

With that, he strode into the portal, missing the grimace on Watanuki's face as he vanished.

* * *

He arrived. It was a beautiful town, painted with the colours of dawn. This would be where he started.

A town bathed in the light of daybreak.

"Welp. Guess I had better find a new name. And maybe make a new Keyblade. It wouldn't do for me to carry my old one anymore..." Sora smiled wistfully, staring into the distance.

* * *

Watanuki sighed as he sat down on the couch, rubbing his forehead.

"Difficult customer?" Doumeki asked as he moved to place down the groceries he'd run out to get last minute. 

"More like ensuring he exists in every timeline," he groaned. 

"That important?"

"Let me put it this way, if he doesn't go back in time now, all the events that led to him coming here wouldn't have happened in the first place."

"... This has to do with the other customer you had doesn't it?"

Watanuki winced, remembering the rage the other customer had exuded when he gave the information he'd paid with the Gazing Eye for.

_~~~Flashback~~~_

_"What the hell do you mean he doesn't exist yet! I remember him teaching us, guiding us, giving us our mission! Was everything we've done all for nothing?!" The hooded figure snarled._

_He'd come to the shop, weeks ago. Disappointed by something as he dragged a Keyblade and a box behind him. Hurt and anger visible in his steps as he made a wish to know of his Master's whereabouts. Something Watanuki could tell him, but the answer was... difficult._

_"I mean exactly what I said. The man you know as the Master of Masters has not come into being yet. He will exist. Just not in this point in time."_

_"But... he promised. He gave the others the books. He informed me he'd find us once the Keyblade War was over... So why? WHY HASN'T HE APPEARED YET?" They snarled, slamming the Keyblade, now missing its second Gazing Eye, to the ground in frustration._

_"I'm afraid I cannot say," Watanuki murmured._

_The customer then gave a defeated sigh and a wiry laugh, "Well, I guess all that's left is for the Worlds to be engulfed by Darkness. Thanks for trying anyways, Shopkeeper."_

_With that he left._

_~~~Flashback End~~~_

"For the Master of Masters to exist, he had to make the wish that would bring him into the past," Watanuki murmured as Mugetsu curled around his neck, seeking affection. "From then, time moves in a singular, preordained path, and only when it hits the Keyblade War did it finally split into its various futures, one of which would lead to the wish. Without the Master of Masters, the Keyblade War wouldn't exist. Without the Keyblade War, the Master of Masters wouldn't exist."

"A closed time loop," Doumeki murmured, as he sat down next to Watanuki.

Watanuki nodded, "As I said, his wish has made sure he exists in every possible timeline, while erasing the possibility of this version of him from ever being created again. Essentially, he'd closed off all but the very best route for his friends' future."

"And the timeline he's from?"

"You heard the other customer. Darkness had prevailed in that timeline," Watanuki gave a pained smile, "It will soon cease to exist, even if it was the causative timeline that created the Master of Masters in the first place."

It was startling, how the Master of Master's circumstances mirrored Sakura and Syaoran's so well. And it was painful, knowing the Master of Masters would soon realise what he'd done. That he'd instead set in motion the very things that had caused him so much pain and heartbreak in the first place.

There was price to pay for altering fate after all.

* * *

In the far past, the Master of Masters finally saw the cause of the first Keyblade War and wept. Wept to himself, knowing that his price would cause so much hurt. That in order to save his friends, he would have to play a part in hurting them first. 

When he'd passed down his Keyblade to Luxu, he told him that he hadn't given it a name. But he knew the reason he'd originally forged the blade. To atone, for future and past mistakes, for the lengths he had gone to ensure the ones he loved lived, and for the lives that would be sacrificed in order for that future to happen.

This was his burden to bear.

His price to pay. 

**Author's Note:**

> Essentially, this is a MoM!Sora fic, who was from a timeline where Riku and Kairi died in order to save Sora from the Demon Tide. He didn't resort to time travel, but instead found a book about the Wish Shop, and decides to try that instead.
> 
> He's also super jaded living in this Darkness filled World. 
> 
> I'm actually unsure if the prices are equivalent. I can't measure equivalence of things like this. I mean. I feel like this is accurate, because of how extensive his wish is, affecting multiple timelines while ending his own permanently.
> 
> Anyways. Pain. Lotsa pain. its also a good way to get around the time loop problem i have if i had simply stuck to kh3's endings.


End file.
